NM3221

As much as observations are done on children, one can’t help but to look at the toys that are sold in Toy R’Us. It has been ages since I stepped into one, and I realized the difference in the type of toys children nowadays are exposed to.

Feel. Smell. Taste. Hear. See

Children are exposed to different variety of toys and games at Toy R’Us. From featured superheroes, to soft toys, guns and swords, children have the choice to look at different types of toys made available to them.

There was a boy that continued to watch a video on a tablet even though he was unable to hear what were the cartoon characters talking about. He said to his dad: “Wait, let me finish the show. I haven’t finished the show!” Once the video stopped playing, he decided that it is time to go. Visual captures the attention for children. The constant change in the animation and colours are able to keep the child’s attention. It also seem that the child is also giving his own interpretation of what is the plot of story. Understanding of plot or story may not be of main concern to the child. Sound seems to be secondary in comparison to sight.

When in doubt, just try again.

Throughout Toy R’Us, children like to give everything a try. Regardless whether it’s a button, or a lever, or a trigger, children in general like to get in touch with them. Particularly, there was a boy playing ‘Where’s My Water?’ on the Samsung Tablet. It is a challenging physics-based puzzle with mechanics. It involves players to understand the correlation between the projected height and distance. It was unable for him to get pass the level simply because he doesn’t know the objective of the game. However, he is willing to retry as many times as he could until he got past the stage. He gave an impression that he would do things in random in hoping of getting something in return. Similarly, another boy was not able to understand what gestures he needed to do in order to break some virtual rocks on the tablet. He ended up drawing in up and down motion with the stylus, tapping, going in circular motion and all sort of different gestures, hoping that there will be at least one that will work.

When he/she grasped the concept of how things work, the children continued to experiment with the possible ways to engage with items and interface. 

Parental guidance is recommended where the tagline of Galaxy Tab product is: They learn, they play. You control. The advertisements advise parents to guide the children in using the tablet in ways that it is designed to be. For younger children, they are unable to understand some of the concepts and ideas presented on the screen.

However, some of the parents are not found with the children. When the children want to get help, their parents were not present to assist them in the usage of the tablet. The parents left their children to play while they head off somewhere else. The staffs working were also not involved in helping with children as well. Although some of the children have helpers (maids) with them, but they were not too concern about the learning the children may be receiving.

Due to the lack of parental/adult guidance on a few occasions, children also learnt to be interdependent and helped one another. Demonstrations were given by some who were more expressive and helpful.

One of the most popular toys found among children was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids. It was also Toy R’us featuring toy as it is placed near the entrance, where everybody will pass by before going further in.

Children of all ages use the Galaxy Tab. From as young as one that only learnt to speak basic words to a kid that is able to take care of himself/herself, they are found engrossed in this device for more than 15 minutes. 

Interestingly, some of the children that do not know how to  operate on the device correctly but continue to use it. They enjoyed the process of using the rubber stylus to tab and draw on the tablet. The responsive of the tablet to the actions done to the screen keep the children’s attention on. Proper usage of the device does not seem to be of concern for the children, but rather it was what appears on screen and the sound it produces. 

'It will be too late'. This may be applied for companies such as Polaroid. Schools and institutions are also advised to be respond quickly as not to fall behind new and better innovations.

However, this may be entirely applicable for children. Children are said to be able to learn quickly. children are less afraid to take risks having less responsibilities and less vulnerability for mistakes. A child’s environment is a big motivational factor in their learning. They are at school studying many different subjects all day, playing different sports, and taking part in different extra-curricular activities. The child environment contrasts with adults who are usually focused on one subject area and are less open to different learning opportunities in their lives. 

In the arena of social science, there is no definite answers. One popular phrase that has been used many times is - it depends. 

I feel that in order for the benefits of mobile technology to be tapped on, it lies also in the hands of different parties. Teachers, parents and friends are different external influences that can affect the way one may use mobile technology. Ultimately, it also lies in the users themselves to decide for themselves how they choose to use. 

While reading on the lack of facilities in developing countries and the difficulties faced by the people, I realised that one opportunity that can be looked into is to take what was treated as junk into useful tools. There has been many articles mentioning about how the rate of technology improvement can bring at the same time a high amount of disposed usable products. Instead of allowing these items to be dump in the landfills, entire or parts of the electronic can actually be utilized somewhere where the privilege of having the newest is not available. In addition, what may be not as good to one may be awesome to another. I believe that there could be treasures in the mess of what has been disposed. 

I believe that there is a need to look into the lifestyles and culture before introducing new concepts in. As much as there are apparent benefits and costs in mobile technology, one should consider the context in which technology is based on. In the process of focusing on technology, one important area researches or facilitators may look into is the anthropology studies. What can be introduced ultimately involves people. In the text, OLPC was mentioned and this is truly something that represents an adaptation made in order to suit the culture and environment. Therefore, as communities begin to adopt, they need to find out what adaptation needs to come first. Once taking into considerations, the innovation may be able to impact in a high level. 

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) can be intrusive on some level if it is used to track the movement of adults. However, it can be necessary and useful in the case of children. 

Children are known to be full of energy and it is almost quite impossible to get them to remain still. And it is the concern of parents to ensure their children's safety as much as they want the kids to explore around. Privacy for children may not be so much a consideration, but safety definitely is. With the ability to track the location of children, parents may not need to ensure that their kids are in their line of sight when outdoors. 

The usage of mobile devices brings about efficiency in taking notes such as the ability of devices to take photos, record voices and also typing onto digital notepad. However, this may not be applicable to all children or students.

Even though users are able to use stylus to jot down onto tablets etc, the experience that he/she may feel can be very different from pen and paper. Even in the case for many grown adults, they prefer the ability to pen down their thoughts and ideas onto physical notebooks rather than digitally onto tablets or smartphones. There are ongoing online forum  discussion and debates regarding which one is better: physical vs digital. 

As readings suggest, toys of the future may have more functionalities such as cameras, video recorders and touch interfaces with motion detection imbedded into toys. I agree that there could be more interactivity for children to explore.

However, there is a possibility that there will be a depreciation of toys that are real and tangible when all that children desire is electronics. Even though non-animated toys does not provide digital visuals etc, there is still value in such toys. Such tangible items are things that children are able to smell, touch and feel physically.